Jerusalem Stands Alone Page 9
Daughters of Jerusalem: The phrase Rabab recites in “The Darkness of Night” is a pastiche based on the Song of Solomon 5:7–8 (King James edition).
Verse 7: “The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.”
Verse 8: “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.”
Hodja, or Molla Nasr al-Dîn: In Iran, Turkey, and the Arab world, a comic character in short, comic folkloric narratives.
Jebusites: A Canaanite tribe which, according to tradition, occupied Jerusalem before its conquest by Joshua (Genesis 10:15).
Jilbāb: The jilbāb is a cloak worn over the head cover (khimaar), with similar coverage to that afforded by an abaya. A jilbāb is made of thick, opaque material that falls to the feet and is loose enough to conceal the shape of a woman’s body. Free of designs or decorations of any kind, the jilbāb opens from the front and the sleeves are narrow at the wrists.
Kaffiyeh: The black-and-white kaffiyeh as used today is a traditional Arab head covering originally used to protect the head from sun and dirt. The kaffiyeh became important as a symbol of Palestinian liberation through its use by Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) and Fatah (in Arabic, Harakat al-Tahrir al-Falastini, a Palestinian nationalist political party and the largest faction of the confederated multiparty PLO). Traditional black-and-white kaffiyehs are identified with Fatah while red-and-white kaffiyehs are identified with Hamas.
Melchizedek: In Jewish and Christian tradition, the prototype of a just king (Genesis 18–20 and passim).
Nasir Khusraw (1004–88 CE): Persian poet, philosopher, and Ismaili theologian. His travel memoir, the Safarnâma, includes a description of Jerusalem, written a generation before the first Crusade.
New Tenant, The (Le nouveau locataire) (1955 CE): A one-act play by Eugène Ionesco in which the new tenant finds that workmen inexplicably keep filling the apartment with absurd amounts of furniture.
Al-Niffari: Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Jabbar ibn al-Hasan al-Niffari (d. 965 CE), author of Kitâb al-Mawâqif.
Oud (also spelled oudh): A perfume made from the resin of the agar tree. (The musical instrument, oud, is from a different stem.)
Salim Sarkis (1869–1926 CE): Journalist and editor of the Lebanese newspaper Lisân al-Ḥâl (1877–1999), founded by Khalil Sarkis.
Tankiz (d. 1340 CE): Sayf al-Din Tankiz ibn ‘Abdullah al-Husami al-Nasiri, viceroy of Syria, 1312–40 CE. Known for public works, architecture, and infrastructure in Damascus. Khan Tankiz, near the Bab Al-Qattanin (both built by Tankiz), was once the old cotton merchant’s market. It now houses Al-Quds University’s Center for Jerusalem Studies.
Mahmoud Shukair, a novelist, playwright, and short-story writer, was born in Jerusalem in 1941. His writing largely deals with the intricacies of daily life in Jerusalem, and the impact of political upheaval on the lives of Palestinian and Israeli families. He has published over forty-five works, including TV series, plays, and articles. His works have been translated into various languages, but this is his first novel to be translated into English.
Nicole Fares, a Lebanon native, translates works from and into Arabic, English, and French. Her translations have been published in various journals and magazines in the United States. She is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Arkansas, where she teaches world literature and gender and sexuality theory. Her first translated novel, 32 by Sahar Mandour, was published by Syracuse University Press in the spring of 2016.